though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad -- in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call --
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned[6] again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed[7] is its stump.